1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to improved advertising devices such as advertising displays and/or loudspeakers and methods of using the same. More specifically, the invention relates to advertising devices which communicate advertisements to targeted individuals based on information relating to the individual""s consumer profile.
2. Description of the Related Art
Several publications are referenced in this application. The references describe the state of the art to which this invention pertains and are hereby incorporated by reference.
For many years, merchants have advertised their goods and services to the general public in order to increase business and/or distinguish themselves from their competitors. For close to fifty years, television advertising, for example, has provided a means to reach millions of potential viewing consumers. Over the years, advertisers have attempted to focus their advertisements towards individuals who are most likely to be positively affected by the ads. On early Saturday mornings, for example, many television ads are often geared towards children who tend to watch the morning programs. On the other hand, during the late evening news, the ads are typically directed to a more mature audience. The technique of targeting is based on crude demographic assumptions. For example, an advertisement for sit-down lawnmowers may be aired during a Sunday night professional football game based on the assumption that a high percentage of the viewers will be men. Of course, even assuming this assumption is true, not every man watching the program will desire and/or need a sit-down lawnmower. Thus, the placement of ads based on demographic targeting is not particularly accurate.
One type of advertising that has at least partially addressed the crudeness of demographic targeting is direct marketing. In direct marketing, an advertisement or promotional information is sent directly to an individual typically based on a consumer profile of the individual. Such consumer profiles are well known and are created by credit card companies and the like. See, U.S. Pat. No. 6,026,370 to Jermyn. The drawbacks of direct advertising practices are that the types of advertisements employed (e.g., printed materials) and the costs associated with these ads decrease the efficiency and/or flexibility of the technique.
Another well-known advertising device is the conventional billboard, such as xe2x80x9cstaticxe2x80x9d advertising devices, which continue to maintain their popularity. Such devices are used along roadways, in airport terminals, at bus depots, on the sides of buses, in restaurant restrooms, etc. See, U.S. Pat. No. 5,947,592 to Barlow; U.S. Pat. No. 4,754,582 to Cameron (Telephone booth with advertising displays); U.S. D317,790 to He; U.S. Pat. No. 5,150,116 to West; U.S. Pat. No. 5,543,856 to Rosser, et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,703,564 to Begum, et al.
These traditional advertising boards are xe2x80x9cstaticxe2x80x9d in that the advertising image is permanently or semi-permanently affixed to the boards. One drawback of such billboards is that in order to change the message, it is necessary to physically change the message by either replacing the sign or repainting, repapering or otherwise physically changing the message.
More recently, xe2x80x9cdynamicxe2x80x9d billboards such as electronic billboards have been employed and are known in the art. Such devices allow the information to be displayed and changed electronically or otherwise. See, xe2x80x9cTurning Pixels into Panache: Nasdaq""s Sign on Times Sq. Fulfills a High-Tech Dreamxe2x80x9d, New York Times, page B1 and B10, Feb. 17, 2000. These devices allow for a variety of messages to be communicated by the device without the physical changes required by the earlier xe2x80x9cstaticxe2x80x9d billboards. This has also enabled the use of video and animation technologies to display the information. See also, U.S. Pat. No. 5,606,154 to Doigan et al. (Timed Advertising In Elevators and Other Shuttles); U.S. Pat. No. 5,969,704 to Green et al. (Configurable LED matrix display).
Other prior art devices include the following:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,214,793 to Conway et al. discloses an electronic and vehicle traffic control communication system which is intended to replace existing billboards. Information transfer is effected using short bursts of microwave pulses from independent transmitters placed in selected locations along roadways. The transmitted signals are coded prior to transmission and decoded after being received by receivers in the vehicles. After decoding the pulses, a receiver will retrieve complete messages from a data base included as part of the in-vehicle receiver system. At the selection of the driver, the messages can be displayed or replayed audible. The Conway patent also describes other systems for communicating traffic and commercial information to drivers.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,848,129 to Baker discloses a billboard system which produces, in addition to the visual message provided by an associated billboard, a related audio message that is transmitted to passing vehicles and which enables ready changing of the message to be transmitted, at all times of the day, by calling the change in over a telephone line from a remote location such as a business office or advertising agency.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,966,696 to Giraud relates to electronic billboards which include a sensor for determining when an individual is within the advertising range and a tracker to track consumer exposure to a number of different advertisements.
Of course, the purpose of an advertisement is to encourage a future transaction between the an individual and the company sponsoring the ad. Such companies and their advertisers typically pay to have advertising messages displayed on such displays. The effectiveness of an advertisement is typically a result of a number of factors. The content and style of the ad is typically geared to xe2x80x9ccatchxe2x80x9d an individual""s attention and increase the likelihood the individual will react favorably to the ad (i.e., purchase the product and/or service being advertised). The effectiveness of the ad is also determined by which individuals and how many individuals are exposed to the ad. Currently, advertisers are faced with the difficult task of determining where to place ads to reach a certain targeted audience. An advertisement for a sale on golf clubs by an advertising store may be optimally located near a golf course to reach a high concentration of potentially interested golfers. Since the ad would be located outside a city, the cost of placing the ad may be less expensive then if it was placed at a busy intersection of a city. However, such an ad would only reach a small number of consumers (i.e., those that pass by that particular golf course). A greater number of individuals may be exposed to the ad if placed on a busy avenue such as Fifth Avenue in midtown New York City where thousands of consumers may pass a properly placed sidewalk ad on any given day. However, only a fraction of those passing individuals may be potential golf consumers. Therefore, the costs of placing the ad in such a location may not be justified since, although a large number of individuals will be exposed to the ad, the ad would be properly targeted to only a fraction of those who see it.
Thus, a significant drawback of such displays is that they treat all consumers the same. This is a severe limitation given virtually all consumer oriented industries are trending from market or segment-focused marketing and advertising toward consumer or individual-focused marketing and advertising. Thus, the effectiveness of previous advertising billboards and other advertising devices suffers due to their inability to display or otherwise convey messages which are targeted to one or more individuals within the range of the advertisement.
It would be desirable to provide an advertising system and method which selects and displays advertisements which are targeted to individual(s). More specifically, it would be desirable to provide an effective way of delivering targeted advertisements to passive consumers who are not interacting with the advertising system such as by using a personal computer via the internet and who are most likely to positively respond to the ad, e.g., purchase and/or use the products or services being offered or advertised.
It is an object of the invention to overcome the above-identified deficiencies.
It is another object of the invention to provide an advertising device which delivers targeted advertisements to individuals within the advertising range of the device and a method of using the same.
It is a further object of the invention to provide an advertising device which delivers targeted advertisements to individuals based on the individuals consumer profile and a method of using the same.
It is a still further object of the invention to provide an advertising device which delivers optimized targeted advertisements to two or more individuals based on the combination of consumer profiles using fuzzy logic.
The foregoing and other objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in or apparent from the following description.
It is an object of the invention to provide improved systems and methods for delivering targeted information such as targeted advertisements to one or more individuals. More specifically, the invention relates to improved advertising devices such as billboards and audio announcement systems and the like and methods of using the same.
The ability to provide ads that are specifically geared to the target consumer""s individual interests is a more efficient and effective advertising technique. Moreover, an ad geared to the target consumer""s interests is more likely to be attractive and thus noticed by the consumer.
The system and method displays advertisements specifically targeted to one or more individuals within the device""s advertising range based on information relating to those individuals. This is achieved by providing the device with the means for receiving and identifying the individuals prior to displaying or during the display of the selected targeted advertisements. According to one preferred embodiment, signals from the one or more proximate individuals are received by the system and a consumer profile or the like is identified based on the signal. Such identifying signals may include the signature signals emitted by cellular telephones or the signature signals emitted by devices such as automobile transponders which allow motorists to pass through highway tolls without stopping to pay the toll collector, e.g., automatic toll charging system (See, U.S. Pat. No. 6,019,285 to Isobe et al.). Once the advertising device receives the identifying signal(s) and identifies the one or more individuals, the device retrieves information from a consumer profile database which includes information regarding the individual(s) and this information is used to select and display targeted advertising to the individuals.
The above and other objects, aspects and advantages of the invention will become readily apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art in view of the following detailed description, which reference to the accompanying drawings.